Contributors

Overview

Mini Spy Camera

For this week’s project, I built a portable mini camera and In this guide, I’ll show you I how I built it. I think this is great for anyone looking to build a DIY project with a low cost camera. I’m using this to create time lapse videos but you could use it for all sorts of photo based projects.

The mini spy camera module has an integrated driver and is really easy to use without an Arduino or Raspberry Pi. The camera sensor can take 1280x960 photos and captures video at 480p. it's not an HD camera but it’s pretty decent for small projects. The module uses a microSD card to store data and it has a maximum support of 32GB.

Timelapse Photography

By taking a series of images, you can compose them together to create time lapse videos. When each photo is taken several seconds or minutes apart, slow things appear to be moving fast – Like these clouds flying by! I captured this timelapse by having the camera take a photo every 5 seconds. Normally, this is achieved with an intervalometer remote control. In this project, we're using an Adafruit Trinket micro-controller to act as the remote control to trigger the camera module.

Prerequisite Guides

We recommend walking through the following tutorial to get familiar with the components used in this project.

Project Expectations

This project uses a $12 camera module – It's not the best or going to replace a GoPro or the camera on your mobile phone. The image quality isn't fantastic, but it is suffice for most things. There are no adjustable camera settings, so everything is automatic.

Camera Comparison

So how does the mini spy camera module stack up agaisnt some other projects / products? In terms of size, the mini spy camera is actually quite small. On the left is the GoPro Session, and the middle is our Wearable Raspberry Pi.

OUT OF STOCK NOTIFICATION

YOUR NAME

YOUR EMAIL

You have been successfully subscribed to the Notification List for this product and will therefore receive an e-mail from us when it is back in stock!

For security reasons, an e-mail has been sent to you acknowledging your subscription. Please remember that this subscription will not result in you receiving any e-mail from us about anything other than the restocking of this item.

If, for any reason, you would like to unsubscribe from the Notification List for this product you will find details of how to do so in the e-mail that has just been sent to you!